If anybody might be best qualified to analyze ink-blots, it would be!
Idaho Ivanho, the former paper-boy!
Here's the heretofore untold story:
Once upon a carefree, youthful time -- happily astride his 2-wheeler with training wheels and a huge well-worn handle-bar bell -- and shortly after hurling one hapless morning paper up onto an old Idaho folks' roof, and right after the previous paper had crashed into somebody else's prize-winning rose-bushes, he had chanced to glance at his last remaining newspaper and...
Saw with utter disbelief! The hippie-dippy 60's headline:
--------------------------------------
"JFK Negotiates Test-Ban Treaty"
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He immediately saw his first (... but hardly his last!)... really crazy-strange ink-blot!
Hmmmm he'd mused -- "I see in that headline, let's see now, a Neanderthal who has... lost his beloved studded club!"
Further contemplation, and he got about -- apocolyptic apoplectic!
"This is THE END of American Exceptionalism, the Empire is falling to bits & pieces, sure, just ask the British how that works! Oh for the love of... THIS! Is no way for the Ordained to behave, this is! Abject stumbled-to-knees cowardice!"
"Should you ask me!"
"Anybody out there? Hey, anybody awake yet? O somebody! Sound the sirens, get the kids under the desks, arms over heads, if you please!"
--------------------
Well, as we notice in many replies in this very thread -- black humor is oft an antidote to... stress, angst, deep inside-out... fearfulness.
Paging Dr Strangelove! Dr Strangelove to the Emergency Room -- on the double!

Exactly.
I have played enough of this latest WW2 ETO game by now to truly appreciate that sometimes you do not achieve a research advance very quickly -- certainly not as soon as you would like. You are subject to a sort of -- occasional statistical strangeness. You keep right on getting 3 or 4 % incremental increases instead of the average, or if lucky (... yep Dame Lady Luck IS in fact in this current schematic, and smiling mighty slyly, at that) you will get more of those 6 or 7% increases.
And so and ipso realistico, that particular research area has indeed suffered a "setback."
Besides, I'm not agreeing with the whole idea of a larger setback anyway. Scientific knowledge has always been quite quickly spread around the globe. Before the internet, scientists have ordinarily been "apolitical" in the sense that they prefer their hard-learned creative knowledge, and naturally -- the credit that goes with it, to reach a much larger audience -- mostly other scientists.
Setbacks are most often due to "political meddling" and/or outright sabotage or deiberate dissemination of misinformation. The latter is already accounted for with your opportunity to invest in "intel." In a typical game I will mostly insure that I have at least 2, or sometimes even more research achievements in intelligence. The former is more in the "what if" category and hardly deserves much attention.
All that being said, I would make the following suggestion:
1) Do not allow a breakthrough until you reach 35% instead of 25%
My reasoning is this -- it should take a little longer to determine if a particular design is even going to be functional in the first instance. You cannot know in advance that any given area of research WILL SURELY result in a viable instrument of war. There are tried and true, and time-taking stages of development that must be FIRST accomplished. Once the initial testing (... beyond the paper work, and even beyond the prototype) is proven, THEN you proceed further, but not until. You don't throw away sparse money or critical time-lapses on potential "duds."
2) INCREASE the variable % possibilty per turn, oh, plus and minus 1% each direction. That way you have a LITTLE more Dame Lady Luck without undermining the current superior SC improvement in research results.
And it most assuredly IS a VERY great improvement over the previous paradigm.
IMHO, THE very best improvement since SC2. Well, retreats and swapping units are pretty doggone good too. In fact, Hubert has done what he has ALWAYS done since the very beginning, and that is... constantly and consistently improve his gaming franchise. Unlike way too many others I could name, but won't, he refuses to merely and lamely throw some half-finished product out there, and take the money and run run run. That's just not how he conducts his business, and we should all be grateful. I know I am. <G>

Having Blash Mon as beta tester would be a pretty doggone good start on it.
BTW: For those who haven't tried it as of yet, I would most definitely give the new WW2 scenario a good work-out. I've been doing so for the last week and am having a grand old time!
Even if you are a veteran SC player, I do believe you'll discover some fresh new challenges and many fines surprises as well. Tougher to co-ordinate your units (... there are some truly cool new ones). By making a few very simple mouse-clicks, you can speed up the AI so a turn doesn't really take all that long. And too, there are some adjustments and expert tweaks already being planned and soon -- on the way.
If you've been waiting -- time to go for it! As Blash Mon would say, get -- IN THERE! And have some great good fun while yer at it.

Ummm, Brad? It was always "Immer." Immer Etwas. Elmer is the long lost brother who no longer lives in the USA. I think he is somewhere in Texas. JK! Ah, you know, Rick Perry and how he DOES like to yak and yak and...
Appreciate that, and same to you, and yours. I trust you are yet the Mage w/the chemistry set, and still surf the Gulf waters now and again. A little slicker than it used to be, I reckon.
Anyway, I am pretty sure you and rambo jr (... once he is through re-doing his paper route, yeh, too many flung up on the roof and deep in the rose-bushes -- yet again!) and Skando Mondo and the Boardwalk Raconteur too, and all the other old bang-the-gong gaming gangers will soon enuff be N-joying the heck outta this great new WW2 ETO!

What dedicated gamer, whether it be old grog or youthful novice -- wouldn't rejoice about this new WW2 ETO GS scenario?
You have Bill's improved and larger map (... scale of ~ 20 miles per tile) so that you can have many more "tactical" encounters, all the while you remain the Strategic Commander who must keep the "big picture" in mind. Sure, you must plan ahead, but also can have the great good fun of trying out your combined-arms tactical maneuvers -- yep, plenty of room now!
And you will be able to complete a full game in a reasonable amount time. Seems as though this would be IDEAL for all those who enjoy playing head to head, mano'a'mano. And for those who prefer solo games, they too will able to finish a complete game fairly quickly.
Think of it. Everyone will now have all of those great features recently introduced in the WWI game, to include the ones recently added with the first patch as well.
And keep in mind that since SC-1, Hubert has always been -- The Great Game Magician -- who has usually surprised us with something new, something different, whether that be an additional feature, freshly scripted events unique to the scenario, or even a cool new unit.
Frankly, I have not been this excited about -- a new game -- for quite some while. And IMO, it is surely much more A WHOLE NEW GAME than merely just another scenario. How many game makers out there have been this generous? I've been around the gaming world since the 60s and I cannot recall -- even one, doing this kind of thing.
For me, a plain old gamer who happens to prefer the WW2 ETO GS genre, I am absolutely thrilled about this latest development. And again, I tell you true, I haven't eagerly anticipated a new game since, well -- way way back when we were all anxiously awaiting SC-1.
And not to omit -- the many Modders are now going to have the opportunity to create WW2 scenarios using all of the new features, and most if not all of the available units and terrain that have appeared over the course of these many years. Hubert's editor is the very best in the entire gaming world, and he just keeps on improving it as we go along.
All in all -- who could ask for anything more?

Hubert, this is above and beyond the all too ordinary way of doing things, as far as I am concerned.
In my long gaming experience, I can certainly, and quite confidently say -- VERY rarely will any game-developer go to these generous and extensive lengths to satisfy new and old customers.
And, NEVER, nope, IMO -- not EVER... has any game-developer created the kind of tremendous Editor that allows the same sort of... experimentation and exploration. That has been true since the very first game, SC1. It is even MORE true today.
This WWI game will be well worth any serious -- or even occasional gamer's time -- and yep, I am quite fortunate to have been granted an advance look at it -- and I'd very highly recommend that everyone buy it and try it out. Over the years I have not usually been a WWI kind of cat, but... I surely am now.
There'll be plenty of time later on down the glory-road to try out some other spin-offs, mods or permutations.

I have happily played Bill's updated scenario just recently and can surely recommend it for any players out there who would like to faithfully re-experience WW2 ETO... "Third-Reich" style.
It has just enough "historically viable" variants -- randomly activated in each game, so to insure fresh and unique challenges, and it is quite faithful to the original board-game, tactically and strategically.
The scale allows more maneuver room than the original board-game, yet allows you to complete the entire war in a reasonable amount of time.
I have been playing these various board and computer games since the late 1950s and this scenario ranks right up there with Hubert's consistently superior WW2 ETO games. I can give no higher recommendation than that.
I played it at Expert +1 and was seriously challenged, so there is plenty of room to adjust the scenario -- more difficult, or, a bit easier -- depending on your own experience and inclinations.
And, to get that old-time "Third Reich" feeling, I'd suggest using the NATO unit symbols... you'd eventually stare at the screen and swear that you were rolling out the dice once again and hoping and praying that your risky -- 1:1 odds attack on Paris or Stalingrad -- will succeed!

I was commenting on what has been made available up to and through "Pacific," and what has been released in the Manual.
Nothing more.
The rest is sheer speculation based on a long-time interest in the "WW2 naval wars" and having played very many different games over these 50 years.
Ipso... I don't "get" yer tossed-off comment about being "a bit presumptious?"
Ludi, the Magic Bead Game Player:
Lucid as per usual. Perhaps even pellucid. The degree of clearness only partially obscured by your very own and BC unique method of presentation.
VERY different from mine, but, that's no hindrance to literate commonality, I don't believe.
Sure, you like yours, and I like mine. How it works. Here, there or anywhere. About anything.
However, I didn't quite catch yer own seismic drift (... sub surface, natch) WRT to those "red herrings?"
Nonetheless, and whether intended on inserted by sheer accident -- conscious or pulled up out of the briny deep, the "fish allusion" was particularly apt.

Ah, I reply to my own thread.
Well, that way there'll be at least the one, eh?
Either that or I feel diminuendo and wish to boost my feeble post count?
To make perfectly clear... it was pzgndr's idea to increase naval MP's/range, and it was, I am pret' sure anyhow -- or was it? Collective Unconscious at it's strange and secretive work? Allowing a mutual appreciation?
Oh shoot the cowpoke, and anyway, primarily -> HIS epiphany to have that there "raid multiplier."
Now, I REALLY like to cite those authors who have summoned out of almost-nothing, IE -. created... the poem, the game, the feature IN a game, the song lyrics, and etc.
In this I absolutely disagree with those who say ANYTHING on the "net" is free and MINE! Because I CAN! Dude!
LOL!
No. Actually, it ain't.
Proper citation, and proper credit given is the honorable way. The only way. You don't "borrow" somebody's writing without ASKING them AT FIRST.
Or, citing the work/author.
Like that.

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy."
-- Lewis Carroll, poem: "Jabberwocky"
-----------------------------------------
It's the thought I woke up with this morning, since my fave college basket-ball-club won a huge victory over the rivals from up north in Rocky Mountains.
But, it's not the thought I have now, no, that's to do with the over-all PIC I get from the Naval Wars re-presented in SC2 going forward.
W/O further distractions, here is my analysis:
1) Naval Bombers
I believe there should be a separate category for these, and have so said for, oh, ~5 years now. Why?
Took a long time to train the pilots. Not the same navigating over open seas as it is over land where there are readily identifiable land-marks. This is especially true for CV's, since landing on a heaving deck is a little more challenging than doing so on a tarmac or a grassy field.
A Nation that loses too many of it's Ace naval pilots (... as Japan did) is not going to be so very formidable in later sorties, no matter how much better the planes become.
2) Submarines I
Vitally important to find a way to include "sub-pens." Have already had a long drawn out discussion with Ludi about the very small casualties taken by the GErman U-boots on the way to and from port, so no need to revive that herein.
No, I am speaking of the hardened concrete bunkers, or sub-pens that were built along France's westward shores.
I will state categorically... NO U-boots were destroyed while in a sub-pen. Even though Allied bombers tried their mightiest to do so. They DID manage to kill many civilians in nearby towns, for which they dutifully apologized.
Anyway, there surely needs to be a way for the U-boots to have "safe harbor" in the sub-pens. NO Strat, NO TAC, and most certainly, NO Carrier should be able to EVEN minimally damage a U-boot while in the sub-pen.
Well, certainly this presents a problem. Because all of the above, in varying degrees, should indeed be able to cripple/sink surface vessels.
What to do?
I would have a unique "resource tile" that is a sub-pen. To be built by the Engineer, or merely placed on board by whatever devise can be imagined.
3) Submarines II
There doesn't seem to be very much adventuring into the far reaches of the Atlantic. Nor, the VERY MANY convoy kills that stretched from the Carib all up along the Eastern seaboard of the USA.
Potential solutions:
a) As pzgndr and I have been experimenting, we have discovered that INCREASING the "raid multiplier" for the GErman U-boots seems to provide a more accurate destruction of the convoys.
Increased dive % is another good way to help the U-boots, or any sub for that matter.
c) I would REALLY like to see "Naval Op-moves." IOW, you could simply spend XX amount of MP's and a sub, or a surface vessel could be moved to a distant, controlled port, same as with the air/land units. Naturally, this should cost MORE than with the land/air units.
AND, it should be restricted. Perhaps? In the Editor there could be a nation-by-nation limitation allowed? So that there could ONLY be so-many of these. And, of course, the # and/or the distance could be improved by researching "infrastructure."
d) Unlike Bill101 -- RE: comment in another thread -- I would absolutely INCREASE the movement capabilities of ALL naval units. Oh, on the order of 1.5 or even 2 times what we have now.
Again, pzgndr and I have been playing around with this, and it works exceptionally well. You can, and maybe should, use more of the "way-point" movement feature, but in the main, you CAN get fleets and task-forces to better replicate their actual range, and especially given that you'll ordinarily have a 2 week -> 1 month or more time frame in which to do this.
Aside: [Game design is open-ended and WITHOUT constriction. By that I mean, why not? Find a BETTER way, and THEN -> rearrange a few things to FIT the new, and better schematic? As opposed to saying that the better scheme CAN'T WORK because of the extant cirumstances? I have been playing just about every sort of board/computer WW2 game for over 50 years, and I've seen all kinds of permutations. It's the Designer's choice, and that's as it should be. The Gestalt -- or, the picture you get when you visualize the field being viewed CAN be utterly and absolutely different -> then you merely "shift" the angle or "perspective" VERY SLIGHTLY. Thus, a new! Paradigm is born. Well, I am no designer, but I have experience in both gaming and psychology and I am by now full well satisfied that EVERYTHING is... as the kaleidoscope. A little twist, a bit more light, a changed personal view-point -- all contribute to "an epiphany." Of any kind, gaming or spiritual or just pragmatic -- with duly soon consequence.]
4) Mayhem
I am by now -- having played well over a hundred games in this most X-cellent SC series -- convinced that there is simply TOO MUCH damage done per naval encounter, whether that be surface or sub.
REDUCING the CTV's across the board would be more realistic, IMHO, and would allow FAR MORE of the desired effect known as "the cat & mouse" encounter. IF you have the skirmish, and IF there is lesser damage per, THEN you must decide whether to return to base and reinforce, or stick to yer guns, so to speak, and continue the good fight.
Now, you could also have it where these repairs would take a little longer, IE -> as some have suggested, over 2 or more turns, and/or you could increase the cost, so that you are ALSO re-presenting the very high cost of running ships all over the place. Reflecting the very crucial aspect of "fuel reserves." Navies of the WW2 era burned it profusely.
5) Shore Bombardments
I have long proposed that these be reduced. For the good and simple reason that all research I have read indicates that there is VERY MINISCULE damage done to any sort of unit being bombarded. Now, many games have it where you can ONLY do this during an amphib invasion. Obviously we don't have that here, and with some reason.
Up until now -- with this new Global Game -- we could not use the amphib to attack a one-tile isle. Now we can, and so, now is the time to revise and put shore bombardment into a proper role. No problem with raising the "demoralilzation," but the strength-point losses remain too high. IMO.
6) Carriers
I would most certainly recommend a separate research category for these. There is simply NO comparison between those CV's that started the wars in Atlantic and Pacific (... other than IJN, who did have more advance carriers, though, that was somewhat the function of having superbly trained pilots) and those that were built and launched later.
Therefore, "carrier tech" would allow -- not only improved movement -- but more importantly by far (again, IMHO) the TWO STRIKES that are now possible.
Also, the "air component" of a CV should certainly cost MORE than that for a land-based unit. Here we have that issue of "pilot training."
CV's should not be able to inflict any damage on shore based units. None. They had fighters for CAP and torpedo bombers for attacking surface vessels. I don't believe they had very much (... other than Fighters strafing or unloading small ordinance) attack-ability insofar as HE/AP shells.
Ipso, I would reduce ALL CV ratings to reflect the above. Perhaps then, the cost might come down a small amount.
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The Naval Wars -- and especially in ANY WW2 ETO game -- too often, IMHO, leave out the very multiform and consequential battles fought in the Med.
I will give you one example:
In the Unternahmen Marita, AKA: The Naval Battle of Marita/Greece, there were the following casualties taken by the UK Royal Navy:
-----------------------------------------------
BB's damaged= 2 (Barham, Warspite)
CV's damaged= 1 (Formidable)
Cruisers damaged= 5... Cruisers SUNK= 3 (Gloucester, Fiji, Coventry)
DD's damaged= 5... DD's SUNK= 6
-----------------------------------------------
And, this was ONLY the one encounter, when it was that Wavell decided to reinforce the Greeks, and the following evacuations -- first to Crete, then back to Egypt. Some historians feel this "whimsical and political" excursion cost Britain the chance to take Libya before FM Rommel could even get underway.
Others say that this was a good Balkan riposte, since it caused some slight delay in the GErman invasion of Russia.
No matter.
In this battle it was Axis AIR POWER -> specifically Axis "naval bombers" who did very nearly ALL of the damage to the UK East Med Fleet.
I hope this will answer Hausser's recent comment that the naval bombers might be saved for another time.
I most respectfully disagree.
The time for those, indeed, the time for much of the above, if not all, is now.
Perhaps a patch or 2 or 3 might adjust this? Well, who knows?
That there's WAY above my pay-grade. Gentlemen and kind sirs. But, I'd like to see SOME of it sooner than later, and IF that were to come to fruition, well, I guess I'd have to borrow from L Carroll, and say,
O Calloo, Callay!
O Frabjous Day!

Up late because my basketball team -- my alma mater -- won a big game tonight against the 10th ranked team in the nation.
Therefore, I am happy. No! Over-joyed!
As for the rest, I can only say that I personally don't believe I have dis-respected anyone.
But IF ANYONE -- THAT very person who feels they've been dissed, and not someone else -- feels I have done that, well, they can tell me so. Stand up, straight up -- to me... Man to Man.
IF I am in the wrong -- and it does happen now & again, you bet! Then I will admit it. Why not? I ain't no Saint.
Even, apologize, if need be.
Beyond that, well, like Popeye the Sailor Man would say it... "I yam what I yam."

Say away JJ!
Oh sure, say the day away, I got time to listen, at the least.
Nuthin' quite like that knowing frou-frou sashay, I say, nor, shall there EVER be again.
Gots something to do with... you and Burt Lancaster standing by the boardwalk there at Atlantic City and sayin' to each the other:
"Whoa! Isn't that Atlantic Ocean... something!
They aint' got one like it nowhere, not even over in retro-Europe!"

Not to even mention, those Thor-gong reverberations are making ack!
Ramshackles out of all them delicate wind-chimes I got hanging on my porch. Makes a soothing night-time sound to go to sleep by, don't you'all think?
Anyhow, that old-deep gong-noise causes my Cat -- "Flash" -- to screech and climb the walls.
Worse, the cat -- Flash, thinks... I am a wall.
Oh, woe.
Got Band-aids?

Very nice analysis all around JJ.
Now, here's what I think... OOOOOOOOOOpps!
OK, I have the gag on now, it's jake for the desert jamoke.
What's 'at Alphonse? Oh. Here's how I do it:
I have a small brass gong next to my typer, and WHENEVER I notice LOTS of OTHER people talking about this subject of "X-xxxx's," I start to IMAGINE that it's OK for me to do so as well, but, of course, it's not, so...
I use this little tiny Thor-like hammer and I... bang the gong!!!!
My wife comes rushing and helps me... put the gag back on.
Then, in a little while, then I am over that terrible impulse, well, you bet, we take it on off.
I must tell you, however, she is a'gittin' awful doggone wearied of this here run back & forth sort of routine!

Hey -> Hausser!
I've ALREADY said I warn't gonna X-claim on it ennymore.
That not good enuff fer ya, you gots to rub it in?
That yer bad-lad modus operandi or what?
LOL!
Here's some precise & particular words for du:
We DON'T need a unit-slot taken up by ANY Garrison type unit.
MUCH rather see that rare slot used for:
1) Naval Bomber
2) Mechanized.
JMO, you know?